China will ban incandescent light bulbs within the next five years and the U.S. is following suit.
Improving technologies, lower prices, consumer awareness and the creation of more energy efficient legislation are all contributing factors in making the lighting industry switch to LEDs and other more environmentally friendly lighting technologies.
Both China and the U.S. are phasing out entirely high-wattage incandescent lights and will eventually place a ban on lower-wattage incandescent lights as well.
Greentech Enterprise reports, “China produced 3.85 billion incandescent light bulbs in 2010 and 1.07 billion were sold domestically, according to the State-run Xinhua News Agency, quoted by the AP. Lighting is estimated to account for about 12 percent of China’s total electricity use and the potential for energy savings and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is enormous, according to the agency.”
Not all Americans are in favor of this lighting ban. Politicians such as Joe Barton (R-TX) and Ron Paul worry that these limitations impose on freedom of choice.
“People don’t want Congress dictating what light fixtures they can use,” said Barton, according to Greentech Enterprise.
The change will happen eventually, and the same lighting bans have already been seen in other regions including the European Union, India and Australia. Canada’s ban on incandescent lights will go into effect in 2012.
The ultimate goal of the incandescent lighting bans is to reduce the amount of energy costs people have and to make the planet a greener place to live.
That’s all for now,
Cori
